How to find out what display is connected to your Mac…

Benjamin Schollnick3 Comments

How can you find out what display is connected to your macintosh?  Well, on the desktop\’s you can examine the monitor, probably…  But what about your laptop?
Open a terminal window, and type this in:

ioreg -lw0 | grep IODisplayEDID | sed \"/[^<]*</s///\" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

For example:

[nerv:~] benjamin% ioreg -lw0 | grep IODisplayEDID | sed \”/[^<]*</s///\” | xxd -p -r | strings -6
SMBXAJ0806727
VO22L HDTV10A
q8-@X,%
@1
@U
[nerv:~] benjamin%
[nerv:~] abcdefg% ioreg -lw0 | grep IODisplayEDID | sed \"/[^<]*</s///\" | xxd -p -r | strings -6
SMBXAJ0806727
VO22L HDTV10A
q8-@X,%
@1
@U 

What does this mean?

  • I don\’t have any information on what the \”SMBXAJ0806727\” is, I thought it was the serial number, but it doesn\’t match the display\’s serial number…
  • The VO22L, in my case, is the model of the monitor, and I assume the HDTV10A is the class of display.
  • The rest of the output appear to be gibberish…
[nerv:~] benjamin% ioreg -lw0 | grep IODisplayEDID | sed \”/[^<]*</s///\” | xxd -p -r | strings -6
SMBXAJ0806727
VO22L HDTV10A
q8-@X,%
@1
@U
[nerv:~] benjamin%

Birthday Reminders on the Birthday Calendar?

Benjamin Schollnick1 Comment

One issue that has plagued the Address Book & iCal combination, is that you are offered the option to automatically add birthday reminders to your calendar….  That\’s fantastic, and will help me prevent the possibility of missing a friends/relatives birthday.
But then, how did I forget Aunt Flo\’s birthday, last week?  Click.  Why doesn\’t the birthday reminder, have an alarm?  What?  You mean, I have to go through the entire 12 months of the year, and manually add alarms for each event?  What if I add another contact?  I\’ll have to go add that to?
It\’s a great idea, but the execution has been off, and Apple doesn\’t seem to want to add this critical feature…
Never fear, the following applescript, can fix that….

tell application \"iCal\"
  tell calendar \"Birthdays\"
    set all_events to every event
    repeat with this_event in all_events
       tell this_event
          delete every sound alarm
          make new sound alarm at end with properties {trigger interval:-(10*days), sound name:\"Basso\"}
        end tell
     end repeat
  end tell
end tell

The script will have to be run anytime you add more birthday entries, but it\’ll allow you to set as many reminders you want per entry…
All credit for this needs to go to Andrew.Bussman from the MacRumors Forums…
This is the original post…

Dungeons and Dragons Online: behold the power of free

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Evidently Dungeons & Dragons Online, has returned to being free.  There is no longer a monthly charge for the MMO.  But if you subscribe, you get additional perks which you can use to aid your character…
Of course, there\’s no way a Macintosh user would ever want to play a MMO.  Those Macintosh users of WOW are just a fiction, after all Apple needs to pretend that the Mac is a viable gaming platform…  Right?  So there is no plans for a Macintosh DDO client…
But, this launcher (https://launchpad.net/pylotro) is suppose to be able to allow Linux/Macintosh systems play Lord of the Rings MMO, and DDO, without bootcamp or virtualization…  Just don\’t tell anyone…
Get more details from Dungeons and Dragons Online: behold the power of free

Apple indicates iTunes LP charges are fiction.

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Brian McKinney, who runs Chicago’s Chocolate Lab Records, claimed at the weekend that iTunes charges a $10,000 production fee for iTunes LP, a new digital format that pairs additional content such as lyrics and videos with album downloads.

In a follow up email, Mckinney adds, “I should note that it is currently possible to design an iTunes LP independently. I\’ve tested a couple designs on iTunes and they work great. The problem is that Apple won\’t let you sell them through their store. So, the $10,000 production fee isn\’t the barrier, it\’s the exclusion of indie labels and artists by Apple. We love iTunes, hate exclusion. Hopefully that will change. Hopefully we will speed up the process.”

However, an iTunes spokesman says the fee is fiction. “There is no production fee charged by Apple,” he says. \”We\’re releasing the open specs for iTunes LP soon, allowing both major and indie labels to create their own.”

To date, only a handful of albums are available as iTunes LPs, the vast majority of then catalogue titles.

Office:Mac 2004 support has been extended

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

In my best Gomer impersonation:
Surprise, Surprise, Surprise…
Microsoft has officially extended supporting Office:Mac 2004 to January 10th, 2012.  They are stating that this will now offer a seamless transition between 2004 and Office:Mac TBD(2010 presumably).

For users who rely on the VBA support that is found in Office 2004, this will allow a seamless transition from Office 2004 to the as-yet-unnamed version of Office:Mac. We haven\’t yet revealed a lot about the next version of Office:Mac, but we have shared that we are bringing back VBA in that release. The next version of Office:Mac will come out in time for holiday shopping in 2010.
Extending mainstream support means that we will continue to deliver all types of support for Office 2004, which includes security updates and fixing other non-security issues. Update Tuesdays won\’t just be for Office:Mac 2008!

Here\’s my 2 cents.  They have realized that 2008 adoption has not been as \”fast\” as they would like, and they are concerned that the lack of official support will cause business users to start examining other packages….
via go ahead, mac my day : Office:Mac 2004 support has been extended.

Indigo 4.1.1 Released

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

4.1.1 is now available for download.
In addition to the major 4.0 improvements and 4.1 features, this update includes:

  • Added remote link management capability for INSTEON EZSwitch30 module.
  • Fixed bug that caused benign \”unknown command bytes\” error to be logged.
  • Fixed bug that caused \”Report error on receiving corrupt commands\” preference to be ignored with the CM15 interface.
  • Improved Prism Reflector connection reliability (improved timeout mechanism, added key file permission healing).
  • Improved reliability of reading INSTEON links from some modules with the PowerLinc 2412 interface.
  • Improved reliability of sending PowerLinc Group/Scene commands with the PowerLinc 2412 interface.
  • Removed benign error logging sometimes seen while working in the Manage INSTEON Links dialog.

Download at Perceptive Automation :: View topic – Indigo 4.1.1 Released.

SCSITaskUserClient – Invalid Arguments? I\’m not arguing here…

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Have you seen these messages in your console log?

10/5/09 9:04:37 PM kernel SCSITaskUserClient – Invalid arguments: scatterGatherEntries = 1, requestedTransferCount 0, transfer direction is 0
10/5/09 9:04:38 PM kernel SCSITaskUserClient – Invalid arguments: scatterGatherEntries = 1, requestedTransferCount = 0, transfer direction is 0
10/5/09 9:04:39 PM kernel SCSITaskUserClient – Invalid arguments: scatterGatherEntries = 1, requestedTransferCount = 0, transfer direction is 0
10/5/09 9:04:37 PM	kernel	SCSITaskUserClient - Invalid arguments:
scatterGatherEntries = 1, requestedTransferCount = 0, transfer direction is 0
10/5/09 9:04:38 PM	kernel	SCSITaskUserClient - Invalid arguments:
scatterGatherEntries = 1, requestedTransferCount = 0, transfer direction is 0
10/5/09 9:04:39 PM	kernel	SCSITaskUserClient - Invalid arguments:
scatterGatherEntries = 1, requestedTransferCount = 0, transfer direction is 0
This error has been seen with Retrospect, Parallels, and I believe in Roxio Toast 10...It seems to be related to DVD/CD rom access, but I have not found any official recognition of the problem.  It\'s been reported in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), and 10.6 (Snow Leopard). 
One potential solution is to disconnect the CD/DVD drive in Parallels, or Retrospect.